Kanban is the latest book by David Anderson, the author of Agile Management for Software Engineering: Applying the Theory of Constraints for Business Results.
While searching for sustainable software development and successful change management, David expanded the ideas of Theory of Constraints and Lean Manufacturing. The new methods got their first real-world implementation at Corbis and Microsoft and the results are presented in this book.

Kanban systems have been gaining popularity in software development and information technology. They represent a pull-system approach, which produces what the next process needs when it needs it. Thus, the new work is pulled into the system when there is a capacity to handle it.

Kanban systems often visualize the development workflow and all work in progress (WIP) on a card wall, where each card represents a single work item. If your objectives are to improve lead time predictability and increase throughput, you can achieve them by limiting WIP, identifying and alleviating bottlenecks, and reducing variability.

The book is very informative, filled with practical ideas and rich examples on how to:

Handle different types of work

Set initial WIP limits and input queue size

Introduce queues to absorb variation and maintain flow

Buffer bottlenecks to ensure smooth flow in the system and avoid idle time in the bottlenecks

Cope with multiple concurrent and unordered activities

Cope with impediments

Support hierarchical requirements

Manage shared resources

I greatly enjoyed reading David's book and hope you will like it as much as I have. My only recommendation for the next edition of this book is to have card-wall pictures printed in color.

In "Managing to Learn", John Shook described the fundamentals of A3 analysis and explained how to apply A3 thinking to improve problem solving and decision making in the organization. In "Understanding A3 Thinking", Durward and Art expanded the scope of A3 reports to two additional categories: proposal reports and status reviews. All three basic types of A3 reports are listed below:

Problem-Solving A3 Report

Proposal A3 Report

Status A3 Report

This book is a practical and insightful introduction to A3 thinking. The authors illustrated how to create different types of A3 reports and included examples, templates, exercises, and review questions for each report category. Additional topics covered include:

Form and style of the reports

Commonly used graph types

Standard A3 templates

Hand-written vs. electronic A3 reports

Storage and retrieval of A3's

Where shall you start if you are interested in learning logical, objective, result-focused A3 thinking process?

The authors recommend starting by writing a simple problem-solving report with the scope limited to an area you have control over. This way, you will be able to focus on learning the steps of producing an A3 without the complexity of interdepartmental politics.

Ask your co-workers as well as your manager/coach for feedback on your A3 report while it is still in progress. Seeking feedback from multiple sources is likely to be very insightful.

Continue using A3 reports to analyze, propose, and summarize your daily work processes and projects.

This book is an excellent addition to Norman Kerth's guide to project retrospectives. Esther and Diana focus on iteration and release retrospectives which are short and frequent. As such, they provide feedback faster and allow the team to find and fix issues before it is too late for the project. Iteration retrospectives are repetitive, seemingly easier to organize and facilitate, and may not even require a formal facilitator.

However, like any other routine executed over and over again, they could sometimes get tiring and even boring. What steps could we take to keep the discussion flow fresh and the team engaged? How could we help the team members apply their creative and unconventional thinking?

Esther and Diana outlined a five-step approach to leading retrospectives. For each step, they offered practical advice and a set of activities and techniques to make retrospectives insightful and fun:

1. Set the Stage

2. Gather Data

3. Generate Insights

4. Decide What to Do

5. Close Retrospective

Checkin

Focus On / Focus Off

Explorer / Shopper / Vacationer / Prisoner

Working Agreements

Temperature Reading

Satisfaction Histogram

Timeline

Triple Nickels

Color Code Dots

Mad Sad Glad

Locate Strengths

Satisfaction Histogram

Team Radar

Like to Like

Brainstorming / Filtering

Force Field Analysis

Five Whys

Fishbone

Patterns and Shifts

Prioritize with Dots

Report Out and Synthesis

Identify Themes

Learning Matrix

Planning Game

SMART Goals

Circle of Questions

Short Subjects

Triple Nickels

Force Field Analysis

+/Delta

Appreciations

Temperature Reading

Helped, Hindered, Hypothesis

Return on Time Invested

Satisfaction Histogram

Team Radar

Learning Matrix

Short Subjects

Retrospectives equipped with these activities will become a powerful iterative improvement tool for your team.

Note that I think of iteration, release, and project retrospectives as iterative rather than continuous improvement tools. They will help your team reflect, learn, adapt, and get better together, eventually reaching the performing stage of Bruce Tuckman's Team Development Model. Performing teams are recommended to implement a continuous improvement tool, such as A3.

Esther's and Diana's book is easy to read, concise, and well organized. If you are doing iterative development, it is likely to serve you as a reference guide for many iterations to come.

To take a closer look at this and other Esther Derby's books, click here. Happy reading!

Welcome again. Thank you for reading my monthly column. Today, we will talk about a classical book on project retrospectives by Norman Kerth.

Norman L. Kerth
Project Retrospectives. A handbook for team reviews.

In my consulting practice, I see many teams working very hard, constantly in a rush trying to save the day, making the most out of every single minute they have... and never having enough time to stop and think about how they perform. Retrospectives provide a formal way for teams to get away from their daily grind and take some time to reflect on their performance, seek an opportunity to learn and get better.

In his book, Norman Kerth does an excellent job guiding readers on how to plan, prepare, and facilitate an effective retrospective on project performance. He describes a very thorough approach to how to prepare for a retrospective in a situation when you are an outsider and do not know the details and history behind the project. He spends quite a bit of time discussing how to make a retrospective safe for all participants and provides valuable methods for extracting related project data and capturing lessons learned.

Norman's approach to retrospectives is a bit heavier than mine. He advocates for 3-4-day preferably off-site residential sessions. I tend to like shorter more frequent meetings ranging anywhere from a couple of hours to a day. In order for shorter more frequent meetings to work, you will need to minimize your project cycle time down to 1-3 months. A retrospective on a 3-year monster will certainly require substantial time and effort.

Remember, the greatest teams are great because they self-reflect and continuously improve.